Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 13

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

St James, a Victorian church designed by C. N. Beazley

Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town and civil parish in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,996 at the 2011 Census. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate. Its two sandy beaches have attracted tourists since the town's development in the 1860s from a small farming community. The local St Mildred's Bay was the site of a Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base, which defended the Thames Estuary coastal towns during World War I. The town is the subject of John Betjeman's poem "Westgate-on-Sea". Residents have included the 19th-century surgeon Erasmus Wilson and former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple. The artist William Quiller Orchardson painted several of his best-known pictures while living in Westgate-on-Sea. The British composer Arnold Cooke and Eton headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench attended local schools as children during the early 20th century. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Het Nieuwe Instituut

... that the archive at the Het Nieuwe Instituut (pictured) contains more than 18 km (11 mi) of architectural resources?
... that people used to drive by John and Mary Pappajohn's house to look at the sculptures in their yard before they were donated for the Pappajohn Sculpture Park?
... that Kashmiri poet Madhosh Balhami lost 30 years of his poetry in a clash between militants and the Indian government?
... that a voice recording of World War I soldier Edward Dwyer was featured in the contemporary ballet Dust?
... that Mozambique-born Violet Dias Lannoy, called "the lost Goan/Indian/African novelist" by Peter Nazareth, came from a Goan family, worked with Mahatma Gandhi, and hung out with Richard Wright?
... that after the mishandling of a call to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office that might have prevented a woman's murder, Florida mandated additional training for 9-1-1 dispatchers?
... that Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Sunny Cheung once said: "We want to build a democratic Hong Kong. It's not our responsibility to build a democratic China"?
... that Bruus, once the national card game of Hamburg, rewards players for "daring and tormenting" certain top trumps, and that such tactics lend the game "a certain charm"?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Alexander Lukashenko

Pro-democracy protests erupt in Belarus amidst the contested reelection of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured).
Prime Minister Hassan Diab of Lebanon, and his cabinet, resign in the wake of the explosions in Beirut that killed 220 people.
In golf, Collin Morikawa wins the PGA Championship for his first career major.
An Air India Express aircraft overruns the runway at Calicut International Airport in Kerala, India, killing 18 people on board.

On this day

August 13: Independence Day in the Central African Republic (1960)

Coldstream Guard on sentry duty

582 – On his deathbed, Roman emperor Tiberius II Constantine named Maurice his successor.
1650 – General George Monck founded the predecessor to the Coldstream Guards (soldier pictured), the oldest regiment of the British Army in continuous active service.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Duke of Marlborough led Allied forces to a crucial victory at the Battle of Blenheim.
1868 – A major earthquake near Arica, Peru (now in Chile), caused an estimated 25,000 deaths; the subsequent tsunami caused considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
1906 – Members of the U.S. Army's all-black 25th Infantry Regiment were accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence.

Nawrūz (d. 1297)
George Grove (b. 1820)
Frederick Sanger (b. 1918)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

The Papiermark is the name given to the German currency from 4 August 1914, when the link between the Goldmark and gold was abandoned. In particular, the name is used for the banknotes issued during the period of hyperinflation in Germany in 1922 and especially 1923. During this period, the Papiermark was also issued by the Free City of Danzig. The last of five series of the Danzig mark was the 1923 inflation issue, which consisted of denominations of 1 million to 10 billion issued from August to October 1923. The Danzig mark was replaced on 22 October 1923 by the Danzig gulden.

This one-hundred-million-mark banknote, issued on 22 September 1923, is in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Other denominations:

Banknote design credit: Danzig Central Finance Department; photographed by Andrew Shiva

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.